This all started when a client ghosted me. 😅
I had built the initial project to near MVP level, job board, dashboards, a basic resume upload, and then suddenly... silence. The client halted everything and disappeared. At the time, I was primarily a frontend developer, with just surface-level knowledge of RESTful APIs and no real backend experience. I could’ve let the disappointment get to me, and for a while, I did.
But when life gives you lemons? You make lemonade.
That failed project became the foundation of something much more meaningful: TalentNest.
After abandoning it for months, I decided to challenge myself. I rebranded everything from scratch, set the bar higher, and committed to turning this into more than just a project. TalentNest isn’t just a portfolio piece, it’s a reflection of my resilience, growth, and ability to turn setbacks into springboards.
It taught me that I’m not just a developer, I’m a solution provider. I might not always have every skill I need from the start, but if I can think of a feature, I’ll research it, learn it, and build it.
What Is TalentNest?
TalentNest is a full-stack hiring platform designed to connect talent to companies using modern tools and AI systems.
It's designed with three main dashboards:
- Talent dashboard: For freelancers/talent to apply for jobs, manage applications, receive interview invites through emails (using Nodemailer), and track their applications.
- Company dashboard: For companies to post jobs and manage them , including editing or deleting postings. Companies can also request a meeting with TalentNest to discuss hiring needs.
- Admin dashboard: This is where the real work happens. The admin dashboard powers intelligent hiring, saving companies the time and effort of manual screening. The admin oversees platform activity (manages blogs, success stories, FAQs, talent, jobs posted, companies’ accounts and needs), connects talent to companies through an AI-powered ATS, schedules interviews, and makes hiring decisions.
Key Features 💡
- AI-Powered ATS (Applicant Tracking System): Upload resumes, extract structured data, and match candidates with jobs using AI embedding and similarity comparison.
- Dynamic Job Board: Fully searchable and filterable with advanced syncing so filters stay consistent across views.
- Hire Flow: From shortlisting, to scheduling interviews, to sending automated hire messages, to generating offer letters using Cohere AI and Puppeteer, to sending emails with cover letters and custom decline emails , TalentNest completes the hiring process end-to-end seamlessly.
- Interview Scheduler: A built-in mini-Calendly-style scheduler for setting up and scheduling meetings with companies and interviews with shortlisted talent.
- Authentication & Authorization: Fully protected routes using middleware, JWT tokens, and role-based access.
- Talent Experience: Multi-step dynamic signup form, profile pages, ability to reset forgotten passwords, resume upload via Cloudinary, update resumes, and view suggested jobs tailored to profession, experience level, and work mode.
- Company Experience: Ability to create, edit, and delete jobs, and manage job visibility.
- Blog & Success Stories: A Blog post where TalentNest can display all blogs related to it (you'd find this one there and all future posts in the series too 😉). A success story page with an infinite scroll like animation that catches the eye, and a help desk where companies and talents can report any issues
- Admin Tools: Manages all platform activities, including the AI-powered hiring process.
Tech Stack ⚙️
- Frontend: Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Redux, Framer Motion
- Backend: Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Cohere API (for embeddings)
- Infrastructure: Dockerized backend, hosted on Fly.io; frontend hosted on Vercel
- Other Tools: Nodemailer (emails), Cloudinary (image and file storage), pdf-parse and Mammoth (resume extraction), Puppeteer (offer letters), and more
Challenges I Faced 😮💨
- Backend Learning Curve: Going from just consuming APIs to building them with Express was tough, but it clicked with time.
- Resume Parsing & Embedding: Structuring messy PDF/DOCX data into something usable and clean was a massive challenge.
- Managing Complex State: With multiple roles and dashboards, handling Redux and middleware-based access flow was a challenge.
- Authentication Issues: Faced serious CORS issues (CORS hell) due to hosting frontend on Vercel and backend on Fly.io.
- Hosting Migration: Migrated the backend from Render.com to a Dockerized Fly.io setup to eliminate cold start delays.
- Pacing Myself: Fighting burnout, self-doubt, and the temptation to quit ,especially when no one’s watching , was maybe the hardest part of all.
What I Learned 📚
This project stretched me. It taught me backend fundamentals, strengthened my frontend skills, and introduced me to concepts like AI embeddings, resume similarity scoring, and user role management.
But more than anything, it taught me to finish what I started.
Over the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing deep dives into each core
feature of TalentNest:
- Building an AI-powered ATS system from scratch
- Implementing an interview scheduler
- Creating a robust job board with synced filters
- Lessons in real authentication, authorization, and protected API architecture
- And so much more
Final Words 💬
If you’re building something and feel stuck, maybe ghosted, maybe burned out, don’t give up. Your current project might just be your best comeback story.
As one of my favorite musicals says:
"I may be battered, I may be torn,
But I will not shatter, I will be reborn."
Let’s ride the storm, and come out better. 🌩️
By the way, the project is live! You can check it out here:
Talent Nest: https://talent-nest.vercel.app
TalentNest-Admin: https://talent-nest-admin.vercel.app
Just create an account as a company or talent and explore the experience. Your feedback is highly appreciated!
Folashade Omoloja
Stay tuned , because this is just the beginning. ✨
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